A’Piao had known Lang Jiuchuan would ask the moment she woke up, but he still had Red Lady bring over the prepared soups and foods first — seeing her settled and eating — before sitting down beside her and giving a concise account of what had been found in the water dungeon and what had happened afterward.
After entering the water dungeon, he had quickly located Qiao Shuyao, along with several other missing children — all under the age of twelve. What was notable was that every one of their birth date configurations indicated noble or doubly blessed fates, and together, the five elements among them formed a cycle of generation. They had all been seated within a formation, where their five-element constitutions were used as living sacrifices — offering their souls and blood essence to propel a spirit tablet’s fortune and power.
A’Piao produced an ancient formation diagram and handed it to Lang Jiuchuan. “When I got back, I looked through my references. It appears to be this — the Five Element Nine-Turn Formation. It uses children whose birth dates align with pure five-element configurations as the formation’s foundation and sacrificial offerings. Their souls and blood essence are used to feed the formation, which rotates the five elemental energies of heaven and earth nine times and delivers the accumulated power to the master of the spirit tablet.”
Lang Jiuchuan’s expression turned cold and severe. Violent intent rose again from the depths of her heart as she took the diagram and looked it over.
She had a deep-seated loathing for this kind of sacrifice — a revulsion toward Daoist cultivators who used such vile techniques to elevate their own cultivation, as though she had lived through something like this firsthand.
A’Piao’s eyelid gave a small twitch. The shift in her energy had come far too quickly.
To prevent Lang Jiuchuan from spiraling further, he continued: “This technique is so vile and sinister that layer upon layer of formations were placed over the area — all simply to conceal any trace of life force from the children who had been abducted as sacrificial offerings. Yet the net of heaven misses nothing.”
“Was the water dungeon already there — built by the Ren Family?” Lang Jiuchuan set down the formation diagram and asked.
“The dungeon existed long before. You already know — the Ren Family had a descendant of the Mo lineage, who had a talent for mechanism-craft. That kind of thing is unsurprising. And hidden beneath the lake, it was secluded enough. It must have served as an escape route for the family.” A’Piao said: “It was simply discovered and put to another use — the dungeon’s secrecy made it a convenient place to carry out this kind of ritual.”
A lake-concealed dungeon, hidden from view by nature — then further veiled by layer upon layer of barrier formations. It would have been nearly impossible to uncover.
“This formation has clearly been running for years. A great many of the skeletal remains at the lake bed belonged to children whose bones had not yet fully set.” A’Piao’s tone was level, but an undercurrent of fury ran beneath it.
Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes went sharp.
“The reason this has now become entangled with the Rong Family is because a hidden passage was found inside the water dungeon — and that passage leads to the Rong Family’s residence in Wu Jing: the Liu Garden.” A’Piao said: “The spirit tablet shattered, so the Rong Family can’t account for the passage. And just then, you happened to kill Zhengyang Zi — so they conveniently found a dead man to use. They’ve placed the blame for everything on his shoulders. A clean frame-up, with no one alive to contradict them.”
Lang Jiuchuan gave a cold laugh. “A ‘no silver buried here’ move. This only confirms all the more clearly that this matter cannot be disentangled from the Rong Family. Whether he was truly a traitor is solely their word — there’s no way for anyone else to verify it. All this has done is turn a five or six out of ten suspicion into an eight or nine.”
“Exactly.” A’Piao nodded in agreement. “And it’s also because the Rong Family has had nothing but misfortune for the past half year — it’s been making them steadily more foolish with every move they make.”
He looked at Lang Jiuchuan then, his gaze carrying a meaningful weight. “Come to think of it, all of the Rong Family’s troubles began the moment you ‘came back to life’ — that’s when their losing streak started.”
Lang Jiuchuan raised her eyes. A sharpness like the cold edge of a blade settled in them, cutting and unyielding. “Indeed. I am their calamity. From the moment they set their sights on this body and moved to kill it — that calamity was born.”
“But you need to stay vigilant,” A’Piao said mildly. “The Rong Family’s previous failures were born from underestimating you. Now that they’ve lost another elder, they have every reason to take you seriously — to keep a close eye on you and make every effort to eliminate you. These past few days you’ve been kept here partly because the Rong Family is actively investigating Zhengyang Zi’s death — better safe than sorry.”
He looked at her again. “But judging by your energy — you’ve turned misfortune into fortune?”
Lang Jiuchuan stood up and turned in a slow circle, pressing one hand to her chest. “There’s only the so-called Dao sinew left.”
Once that single tendon connecting the eight extraordinary meridians was restored, this broken body of hers would finally be complete. When she recovered her remaining soul fragments and underwent the heavenly tribulation to reintegrate and reforge herself — that would be a true rebirth, full and intact.
By then, her strength would certainly exceed what it was now.
After all, even now — costly as it had been — she had managed to kill a cultivator at the threshold of Foundation Establishment.
And from this battle, she had gained much. Her spiritual energy was abundant, flowing into her core to gather and settle — and she understood the Dizhong far better now too: she knew how to draw out its subtler uses.
Lang Jiuchuan looked down, turning the Dizhong in her fingers. The thunder runes and cloud seal scripts on its surface seemed even more wondrous to her now — hinting at hidden mysteries, resonating with something in her.
“Such a little thing, full of pride.” She tapped the Dizhong lightly.
The Dizhong emitted a soft, low hum — one that seemed to agree, yet also seemed faintly imperious, like a dignified rebuke: You were the useless one — don’t go blaming me for holding back.
A’Piao, being a ghost, naturally felt a wariness toward immortal artifacts in his very nature. The small exchange of resonance between the girl and the bell made him deeply uneasy — his divine soul instinctively shrank back.
Lang Jiuchuan seemed to notice, and released the Dizhong. “Whether the Rong Family investigates or not, as long as I exist for a single day, the Fourth Madam of the Rong Family will not sit still. She will use this opportunity to pin everything on me and use it as her grounds to remove me. I have never underestimated these Mystical Clan people — but I do not fear them either. If they come for me, I will be waiting.”
Zhengyang Zi had owed her this body a death — and now that she had settled his account, she felt her soul grow more settled within the flesh. Of those who remained — she was curious about every last one of them.
“Good that you have your wits about you.” A’Piao felt the tension ease in him when he saw her composed certainty. Sometimes spell combat depleted spiritual energy, yes — but it also pushed some cultivators to elevate their own power.
Combat was always the fastest way to advance in cultivation — it revealed one’s own weaknesses, allowing one to learn from the opponent’s strengths, and gave a clear sense of the enemy’s capabilities.
Looking at Lang Jiuchuan now, he could see she was fully prepared to use the Rong Family as training partners.
“Returning to the earlier matter,” Lang Jiuchuan said, steering back. “The spirit tablet at the center of the Five Element Nine-Turn Formation — did it have a name on it? Whose birth date was written?”
A’Piao had anticipated this. He retrieved a slip with a birth date on it and passed it over. “Although the Rong Family is using Zhengyang Zi as their scapegoat — claiming the formation was something he built for himself — when I looked at the birth date, it couldn’t possibly have been his.”
Lang Jiuchuan took it and read it over. “Naturally it isn’t his. This birth date doesn’t belong to any living person, strictly speaking — it was never meant to represent a real person. What it represents is something else entirely.”
“A dead person?”
“The four pillars and eight characters don’t align — they don’t fit together. The spirit tablet must conceal something else within it. The dungeon was shrouded in layer upon layer of formations, yet we found it all the same — which means that place was never truly secure. Once discovered and the contents exposed, the spirit tablet itself would have been solid evidence. Would anyone in their right mind leave the real information sitting plainly on the surface?” Lang Jiuchuan’s eyes grew cold. “The answer is in there — it simply needs someone to ask for it properly. And I want to know: when this body died — who was there?”